With the start of fall camp less than a month away and the kickoff of the 2019 season less than two months away, it's time to start examining the Missouri football team's strengths and weaknesses. In this three-part series, we are going to take a look at the Tigers' 2018 statistics on offense, defense and special teams in an effort to examine what the team should do well and what it needs to improve this season.
Tuesday, we broke down the Missouri offense. Today, we shift our attention to a defense that performed well against the run but had its struggles against the pass last season. The Tigers return seven starters from a unit that ranked No. 62 nationally in overall defense and No. 50 in scoring defense, surrendering 25.5 points per game.
Pass Defense
Missouri didn't exactly lock down opponent's air attacks last season. The Tigers gave up 333 yards to Oklahoma State in the Liberty Bowl, 380 yards to Tua Tagovailoa and Alabama and a whopping 572 yards to Purdue last season. The blame for that falls on both the secondary and the pass rush.
The numbers suggest that Missouri's biggest problem was giving up big plays in the passing game. The Tigers allowed an average of four passing plays per game to go for more than 20 yards. Those plays resulted from both individual defensive backs getting beat and coverage busts that left opposing pass-catchers wide open, which seemed particularly common in the middle of the field. The passes defended statistic suggests the Tiger cornerbacks were at least average at making a play on the ball when they were close enough to do so. Fans can take hope from the fact that coverage appeared to improve as the season went on (with the exception of the Liberty Bowl) and all five starters in the defensive backfield, including cornerback DeMarkus Acy, will be back this season.
The defensive backfield would certainly benefit from an increased pass rush from the front four. The team's sack total from last season is a bit misleading. Missouri struggled to generate pressure early in the season, so the staff started dialing up more exotic blitzes as the season went on, which increases the pressure on the defensive backs. Only 6.5 of the team's 27 sacks came from the defensive end position, and 3.5 of those came from players who are not likely to be on the roster this year (Tre Williams and Nate Anderson). The pass rush figures to be one of the Tigers' biggest indicators of success this season.
Run defense
Missouri may have struggled at times against the pass, but the Tigers largely swallowed up opponents' rushing attacks. Missouri held 12 of its 13 opponents last season beneath their season average in rushing yards, with the lone exception being Vanderbilt. The success against the run was built on the Tigers' strength at linebacker and defensive tackle. The good news for Tiger fans is middle linebacker Cale Garrett, who tied for the SEC lead with 68 solo tackles last season, will be back to lead the defense as a senior. A bit more worrisome is the team has to replace Garrett's running mate at linebacker, Terez Hall, as well as both starters at defensive tackle. The coaching staff is high on rising sophomore linebacker Nick Bolton and Jordan Elliott should be ease the loss of Terry Beckner Jr. on the defensive line, but a small regression in run defense wouldn't come as a shock.
Missouri may not have generated a ton of negative plays for opponents, but the Tigers were elite at stuffing the run in short-yardage situations. The defense surrendered just 10 rushing touchdowns on the year and routinely dominated on fourth downs. More on that to come.
Miscellaneous
Head coach Barry Odom has been open about wanting to see his defense generate more turnovers, which was one of his motivations for hiring new cornerbacks coach David Gibbs during the offseason. Missouri averaged just over one takeaway per game last season. A little bit of that could be chalked up to bad luck — the defense's 42.9 percent fumble recovery rate ranked No. 89 nationally — but for the most part, the defense simply needs to generate more big plays. An improved pass rush could certainly help in that regard. The unit performed well on both third and, especially, fourth downs. As mentioned above, that had a lot to do with short-yardage run defense.
Overall, Missouri would do well to simply maintain its run defense from last season while improving at rushing the passer, covering opposing receivers and generating more takeaways. Given the team's offensive firepower, the defense doesn't need to pitch a shutout every Saturday, but if it is able to cut down on the number of explosive plays it allowed in the passing game while creating a few more turnovers, the team could see its win total increase.
